Africa sees some artifacts returned home but seeks far more

A memorial bronze bust of a king’s mother dating to the 16 th century, from the Benin Kingdom in what is now Nigeria, photographed on display at the Ethnological Museum in Berlin in November 2014. Germany and Nigeria recently made an agreement for the European nation to return several Benin bronzes to Nigeria, but other countries have been less receptive to African requests for the return of their art and artifacts. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Daderot. Shared under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
A memorial bronze bust of a king’s mother dating to the 16 th century, from the Benin Kingdom in what is now Nigeria, photographed on display at the Ethnological Museum in Berlin in November 2014. Germany and Nigeria recently made an agreement for the European nation to return several Benin bronzes to Nigeria, but other countries have been less receptive to African requests for the return of their art and artifacts. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Daderot. Shared under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
A memorial bronze bust of a king’s mother dating to the 16th century, from the Benin Kingdom in what is now Nigeria, photographed on display at the Ethnological Museum in Berlin in November 2014. Germany and Nigeria recently made an agreement for Germany to return several Benin bronzes to Nigeria, but other European countries have been less receptive to African requests for the return of their art and artifacts. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Daderot. Shared under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) – Apollo John Rwamparo speaks forlornly of the eight-legged stool, a symbol of authority for his ancient kingdom in Uganda, now glimpsed through a glass barrier at a museum thousands of miles away in Britain. The wooden stool is permanently exhibited at the University of Oxford, one of at least 279 objects there taken from Bunyoro-Kitara kingdom during the colonial era. Oxford has resisted attempts to have the stool repatriated, saying it was donated by a royal from a breakaway kingdom. “It’s quite frustrating,” said Rwamparo, a deputy prime minister and minister for tourism for the kingdom. “The best is for them to swallow their pride, like the French and the Germans have done, and return the artifacts.”

African countries’ efforts at restitution, after long resistance from authorities in Europe, are now blossoming with the return of treasured pieces that once were thought unattainable.

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